EuroNAS: From Archival Storage to Elastic Scale-Out Solutions – A Deep Dive
EuroNAS has undergone a significant evolution, transforming from a provider of high-capacity archival storage to a burgeoning force in elastic, scale-out storage solutions. This article details that journey, outlining the key technological shifts and the ambitious growth trajectory the company is now experiencing. We’ll explore how EuroNAS addressed evolving customer needs, moving from ZFS-based systems to the power of Ceph, and what this means for the future of their offerings.
The Early Years: Archival Focus & ZFS reliability (2010-2016)
Initially, EuroNAS carved a niche providing robust, high-capacity storage solutions. Their core offering centered around leveraging commodity hardware with the powerful ZFS file system. This approach delivered a compelling choice to traditional storage arrays.
Here’s what defined this initial phase:
* Connectivity: Support for Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and NVMe-over-Fabrics ensured broad compatibility.
* Data Integrity: ZFS provided software RAID, data compression, and crucial snapshot capabilities for data protection.
* Scalability (Early): Integration with Seagate’s Exos corvault enclosures allowed for raw capacities reaching 2.5PB, scalable to 7.5PB with multiple units.
* Enhanced Access: An SSD-equipped server with a graphical user interface accelerated access to archived data.
* High Availability: Introduction of a HA Cluster,utilizing redundant euronas servers synchronizing data,boosted reliability.
This foundation proved popular for archival needs, but the market began to demand more.
Addressing Virtualization: The KVM & Reflink Innovation (2016-2024)
The turning point came in 2016 when customers requested the ability to run virtual machines directly on EuroNAS systems. competitors like Nutanix, with their hyper-converged infrastructure, were already offering this functionality.
EuroNAS responded by leveraging KVM, the Linux kernel-based hypervisor. Though, they quickly identified a critical limitation: KVM’s incremental snapshot tools were slow, requiring lengthy synthetic snapshot builds during restoration.
To overcome this, EuroNAS developed a proprietary system built around reflinks within Btrfs.Reflinks create efficient, near-instantaneous snapshots, dramatically reducing restoration times. This innovation allowed EuroNAS to compete effectively in the virtualization space.
The Shift to Elasticity: Embracing Ceph (2024-2025)
While EuroNAS’s virtualization capabilities were improving, a essential limitation remained: scalability.ZFS, while excellent for reliability, wasn’t designed for the dynamic elasticity demanded by modern applications.
“The problem wasn’t about virtualisation capacity, but elasticity,” explains Fritz, a key figure at EuroNAS. Customers migrating from VMware or Nutanix needed the ability to seamlessly add capacity as their needs grew. ZFS couldn’t deliver that.
the solution? Ceph.
Switching to Ceph unlocked a new level of scalability and flexibility. The success of Ceph within their virtualization platform (now branded eEVOS) led EuroNAS to extend its use to their traditional storage offerings, resulting in eEKAS.
Here’s how Ceph changed the game:
* elasticity: Ceph allows for seamless scaling of storage resources, adding capacity on demand.
* Scale-Out Architecture: eEVOS and eEKAS clusters can now scale to 60 nodes.
* New Market opportunities: eEKAS positions EuroNAS to compete with established players like Dell PowerScale and Qumulo (HPE) in the video production and other demanding markets.
A Revenue Explosion: The Future is Cluster-Based
The transition to Ceph has had a dramatic impact on EuroNAS’s buisness. The company is forecasting a significant revenue increase, moving from approximately €5 million annually to a projected €20-30 million.
This growth is driven by a shift in their sales model:
* From Per-Server to Cluster Licensing: Previously, EuroNAS sold licenses for individual servers. now, they are selling licenses for entire clusters.
* Large-Scale Deployments: A recent contract for a 60-node
